A Weekend in Champagne

This past weekend, we made our first long voyage as a family of 4 to Champagne, a northeast province of France best known for...you guessed it...their sparkling white wine. There we met the whole de Kerchove family, all 19 of us, to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of Alexis' parents.

The weekend was very special for us to say the least. Nowadays, especially with all of the families expanding and living far apart, it is a rarity to get the whole family together for an evening, much less 2 whole days. We definitely took advantage of our time together as much as we could. The days were complete with kid-fun activities, and at night we enjoyed long dinners together, while the little ones were in bed. It was a perfect balance of everything...

Well, as you'll see below, the word of the weekend was definitely "horses!"...much to the joy of Jacques. On Saturday morning, we went to a local stable and rented 4 little horses to give all the kids pony rides...only in the european countryside. Jack loves to ride horses now...he just shines with pride. The only thing he doesn't really like is when the ponies try to eat, but sometimes the fresh grass is irresistible.

Proud on his pony...

Not too fast Mama...

The cousins...(minus Timothee...)

The next morning, Daddy, Nanou and all of the grandkids took a carriage ride through the vineyards. Even though the sky was a bit overcast, the fields were amazing with their autumn colors.

The vineyards of Champagne, France

A carriage ride through the vineyards

Say "Cheese"!

The weekend was also very special because we all got to celebrate Olivia's 2nd birthday together. It's so hard to believe that our little babies are now 2!

Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Even though we don't get to see our families that often, I'm always amazed how Jack just jumps right on in. Within seconds of arriving at the hotel, he was hand-in-hand with 2 of his cousins running off to play. It's crazy the sense of family you can have, even when living so far away.

Jack's vocabulary definitely expanded during the weekend...he was able to say almost every cousins name by the end of the 2 days. On Monday morning, he kept asking me "play...cousins". Luckily there are only a couple of months until Christmas...but until then, we'll have to try to get a few videochats in.

A special thanks to Cedric and Caroline who not only found a hotel in the countryside to host us but organized such great weekend activities.

Happy 40th wedding anniversary Daddy and Nanou!!

Click here for a few more pictures...unfortunately there's not much, we took more advantage of the people than good photo opportunities.

Timothee is 2 months old

Time sure does fly. Its hard to believe that our little baby is already 2 months old. I thought that at first the transition to our life as a family of 4 might be a bit difficult, especially for Jack. But with the help of Bear, Nanou and Daddy, and Becky and Andrew, Jacques has had plenty of great distractions and playmates...and I have had plenty of time for Timothee.

We were on our own for the last few of weeks, and although there were a few minor road bumps (how best to deal when 2 kids are crying at the same time?), it's been a really great ride.

Although no day is quite the same for Timothee...here are a few things that he enjoys at the moment.

1) His Thumb!

That's right, everyone. Timothee has followed in the steps of his big brother. He officially became a thumb sucker a week or so before turning 2 months old. He was the proudest little boy when he finally found it...and his Mama was quite happy as well. At least for the last couple of weeks, his thumb has been magical and he went from waking up every couple hours or so to sleeping through the night. Now all we have to do is work on naptimes!

I got it!!...

My other thumbsucker...

2) Smiling

When Timothee is awake, one of Jack's and my favorite thing to do is to get the little man to smile. It's great that he is such a happy baby and an easy crowd to please. Even a simple rendition of "This Little Piggy" makes his mouth open wide with glee.

Rockin' the stripes...

3) His Mobile

Over the past few weeks, Timothee has really begun to love his mobile. He can stare at it happily forever, kicking his legs in delight. Funnily enough, Jack has also come to re-enjoy his former baby toys. He often joins his brother to watch his mobile on the mat. Sometimes I even find Jacques, by himself, gazing up at the moving animals and dreaming.

What are you dreaming about?

One thing that Timothee still doesn't quite enjoy yet is belly time. Although his Mama encourages him to do his "exercises" a few times a day, it's often met with frustration after a few minutes. It's hard to believe that he'll soon be rolling and crawling about...

Almost there...

Tell me I'm not cute...

Leaf peeping in Tyresta National Park

As another fun Halloween weekend activity, Alexis and I decided to venture outside of the city for the first time to Tyresta, a national park 20 km south of Stockholm. We thought it would be a great opportunity to take advantage of our new northern location to experience the wonderful changing colors of Autumn for the first time in 4 years. It turns out we should have read our guide books first, since the whole park is an old-growth forest consisting of pine trees.

Some of the beautiful old-growth forest

The sun peeping through...

Even though we were surrounded by green the whole time, it was great to get out and hike a little in the chilly autumn air. True to the family-friendly ways of Sweden, there was a 5km stroller friendly path that we followed around a beautiful lake.

On the edge of the lake...

Crossing the marsh land...

Enjoying the sunny side of the lake

Surprisingly, Jack ended up walking...and even running...most of the way. We had great fun singing and playing little games like "loup, loup, ou es-tu?"..."wolf, wolf, where are you?". Jacques, in a typically 2 year old fashion, really got into the spirit and loved being chased by the wolf at the end.

Loup, loup, ou es-tu?

Here comes the wolf!!

We are slowly learning the ways of Swedish life, and one thing that we would really like to experience soon is the lunch grill-out. In many Swedish parks, and even at the end of our stroller friendly loop, you can find a fire pit, hot and ready, with a small cabin nearby selling various hot dogs and sausages, complete with skewers, for grilling. It seems to be a great alternative to our typical picnic sandwiches. We can't wait.

A family portrait at snack time...

Timothee looking Swedish in his striped hat

For those of you that were concerned, although we didn't get to see many bright colored leaves in Tyresta, we have been lucky enough to enjoy tons of bright yellow and red leaves over the past few weeks in Stockholm itself. The city, which is amazingly green in the summer, really turns into a beautiful paradise of fall foliage in the Autumn. I regret not taking pictures of our backyard...I guess there is always next year!